Dirty Harry Meets Clean Mitt
Saturday, September 01, 2012 1:47:14 PM · 28 of 28
KeyLargo to Kaslin
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Play Clinty For Me
By Mark Steyn
August 31, 2012 3:08 P.M.
Like William F. Gavin, I hugely enjoyed Clint Eastwood’s turn last night, but I’m not sure I agree that it was “unintentionally hilarious” and that “he forgot his lines, lost his way.” Clint is a brilliant actor, and a superb director of other actors (and I don’t just mean a quarter-century ago: In the last five years, he’s directed eight films). He’s also, as Mr. Gavin observed, a terrific jazz improviser at the piano — and, in film and music documentaries, an extremely articulate interviewee. So I wouldn’t assume that the general tenor of his performance wasn’t exactly as he intended. The hair was a clue: No Hollywood icon goes out on stage like that unless he means to.
John Hayward writes:
The intended recipient was not Mitt Romney, the convention delegates, or even Republican voters, but rather wavering independents. Clint was there to tell them it’s OK to find Obama, his ugly campaign operation, and his increasingly shrill band of die-hard defenders ridiculous. It’s OK to laugh at them.
I’m not sure he could have pulled that off if he’d delivered a slick telepromptered pitch.
http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/315658
Empty-chair interviews officially a trend after Clint Eastwood RNC speech
Clint Eastwood interviewed an empty chair Thursday night at the RNC, in a speech that took a remarkably maverick tone even without the stunt.
Punks on Twitter couldn’t believe how lucky they got. (Except Tom Brokaw.) A British correspondent tried to make sense of American Democracy. People took their own photos of empty chairs, and naturally there’s now a Twitter account for Clint’s.
More important, this was the fourth incidence of an Elijah seat on TV since the beginning of the year. Piers Morgan had one on his CNN show this month after U.S. Rep. Todd Akin canceled an appearance. Lawrence O’Donnell interviewed a chair in March, after a lawyer for George Zimmerman left the studio unexpectedly. Also on MSNBC that month, Thomas Roberts interviewed an empty chair after a guest didn’t show — and had to apologize after the network admitted it had brought her to the wrong studio.
It may be difficult for print journalists to hop on this trend, which, it should be noted, has only a 50 percent success rate. But please send examples of your own attempts. Here’s one guy who tried to capitalize on it:
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